by Joseph Wardy

Created on: November 22, 2010   Last Updated: December 19, 2011

The title " why bad things happen to good people" is not as clear as it appears on the surface. How is "good" defined?  Is good a person who attends religious service every week, gives to his denomination monetarily and follows the doctrine preached? Or is good a person of spiritual dimension who is leading life from a path moment by moment? Maybe truly good can be determined by the following quote: " A religious person is someone who responds to, life so  that hell can be avoided and a spiritual person is one who has been to hell and back and is a good person in spite of it". 

So, how does a spiritual person deal with bad things that are happening to them? One avenue that a spiritual person may explore is is to determine if this bad thing is happening  to them or created by them? Many people carry a story of what happened to them for years allowing their unhappiness to be from within. The behavior is creates a victim mindset that stays in the past by focusing on the problem rather than searching for a solution in the present.

 Bad things happening to a person are often a result of creating suffering in our lives. The Buddha taught that suffering is created by our greed, anger and ignorance. In the United States, the greed of people on Wall Street created suffering resulting in bad things happening to masses of people. On an individual basis, anger  caused by our pain , hurt and resentment is the illusion of bad things happening because we have alienated ourselves from the people we are angry with. These so called bad things are created by us.

On the other side of the issue, there are bad things that happen to people that are not created bu suffering but are the realities of life. In varying degrees, all people experience these realities. The truly good person does not view bad things in the "why" but realizes that there will be a "when" and responds positively by "what" will be  done and "how" it will be handled.

Also, are there bad things happening or is it our view that it is a bad thing? Some of these bad things are the realities of life . Others are challenges appearing to be bad things that become good things when acceptance of what is is practiced. Concluding thought: Bad things don't happen as much as our reaction to them by our thoughts, words and actions!

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